Overview
Introduction
The Threepenny Opera (Die Dreigroschenoper) is a "play with music" by Bertolt Brecht and Elizabeth Hauptmann, adapted from a translation by Hauptmann of John Gay's 18th-century English ballad opera, The Beggar's Opera, with music by Kurt Weill and insertion ballads by François Villon and Rudyard Kipling. Although there is debate as to whether Hauptmann might have produced much of the text, Brecht is usually listed as sole author in printed versions.
The work offers a Socialist critique of the capitalist world. It opened on 31 August 1928 at Berlin's Theater am Schiffbauerdamm.
Songs from The Threepenny Opera have been widely covered and become standards, most notably "Die Moritat von Mackie Messer" ("The Ballad of Mack the Knife") and "Seeräuberjenny" ("Pirate Jenny").
